This invention relates generally to balls, and specifically to, a football that may be thrown and which includes means to measure and record specific throwing statistics, such as the distance the ball was thrown, the speed the ball was thrown and/or the length of time the ball was in the air, as well as other well known passing or throwing statistics.
The competitiveness of throwing objects, such as baseballs, footballs, Frisbees(trademark), and the like, are often the subject of many child and adult games. Many devices or objects have been the subject of the prior art to increase throwing attributes, such as the distance or height one may throw the object or the time the object remains in the air. However, the ability to accurately measure these throwing attributes has been largely ignored. While various devices such as velocity measuring devices equipped for measuring professional pitching speeds and hockey puck shots are widely used in professional and amateur sports, these devices are extremely costly to employ and are not designed to be placed within the objects themselves.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,576 entitled xe2x80x9cThrow-Measuring Footballxe2x80x9d (referred to herein as the ""576 patent) a measuring apparatus is embedded within the football itself and measures the distance the football was thrown, the acceleration of the football and the time aloft. The ""576 patent uses an accelerometer to measure the acceleration of the football. However, if the football is thrown with too severe of a loft the vertical component of the acceleration is greater then the horizontal component, causing the measurements to be inaccurate. In such conditions the ""576 patent displays a xe2x80x9cLOBxe2x80x9d reading to indicate that the trajectory was too high (See Col 3, lines 20-25). In addition it was further found that if the football has the slightest wobble to the throw, there is an extra component that is added to the acceleration reading by the accelerometer that should be compensated for or else the calculations become inaccurate. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a more accurate measurement device that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.
In accordance with the present invention an electronic football is capable of calculating various throwing statistics. The electronic football includes a start switch in communication with a timer means that starts when the start switch is released substantially when the football is thrown. Upon impact, an impact switch triggers the timer to stop, thereby providing a total flight time. The electronic football further includes a pressure gauge positioned in an opening in the forward section of the football for measuring the air pressure when the football is thrown. The pressure readings are received by a microprocessor, which calculates the various throwing statistics. The throwing statistics may further be displayed on a display screen or emitted to the user through a speaker. The electronic football further includes the ability to track the history of the throwing statistics thereby providing the means to calculate averages as well as the maximum values during the history. The football may further include a tail that projects from the rearward section of the football providing a means to keep the football from wobbling.
Numerous other advantages and features of the invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description of the invention and the embodiments thereof, from the claims, and from the accompanying drawings.